Wednesday, 12 January, 2011

Time-Resolved Picosecond Photocurrents in Contacted Carbon Nanotubes

We introduce coplanar stripline circuits to resolve the ultrafast photocurrent dynamics of freely suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the time domain. By applying an on-chip pumpprobe laser spectroscopy, we demonstrate that CNTs, contacted by metal electrodes, exhibit a picosecond photocurrent response. We find a combination of an optically induced ultrafast displacement current, transport of photogenerated charge carriers at the Fermi velocity to the electrodes, and interband charge-carrier recombination processes to dominate the ultrafast photocurrent of the CNTs.